bordello bargello

So named because spell check doesn't like the word bargello and tries to change it to bordello.
I am making another version of Bonnie Hunter's bargello quilt. A lot of mindless sewing that I am fitting in here and there. My Bernina 1530 has major, as in mother board, problems so I am sewing on the Bernina 830 I got for $25 at a thrift shop. A beautiful stitch and I am getting used to there not being a needle down setting.
Making this pretty big using Bonnie's numbers of 6 panels of forty 2 1/2 strips; each strip cut 16" and each panel sliced into six 2 1/2 inch segments. I don't plan to put borders on it.
I really like how the panels look before cutting. Last time I made this pattern I left one panel whole. I think after this quilt I will make one with just panels.
The plaids continue to be what I want to work with.


AND, school has started.

block party 2010

We have a great band this year, Green Sugar. http://www.thegreensugar.com/
In true Chicago fashion, a neighbor "knew a guy" and we were able to book them.

Hung some of my quilts up again.

In the street is ping pong, corn toss, basketball, street hockey, jumping jack, and more. Tonight, dancing in the streets.

ill-gotten baseballs

When my father-in-law moved to Chicago from Connecticut, he came with about 30 large packing boxes that ended up in our living room. On her end of the move, my sister-in-law showed him every piece of paper in his apartment and got his ok to throw it away or mail it to Chicago. Most of it got mailed. He came in September and I asked that the boxes be dealt with by Thanksgiving. Every day he would tackle part of a box, again keeping nearly every piece of paper and repacking it, but in the midst of all the paper were baseballs. Each box had at least 5; some had a dozen. It turned out that Ed's apartment was across the street from the high school baseball field and he would go for a walk after their practices and pick up the baseballs and take them home. Ed was a true baseball lover, and I'm not sure what his motivation was, but those baseballs endeared him to me. I collected a bunch of them and put them in this egg basket I used to collect eggs as a child. Andy has given away a lot of the baseballs over the years since Ed's death, but I said these are mine.

"I think the quilt makers of the world need to rise up and start throwing elbows."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/garden/12qna.html?_r=1

Check out the great interview with Boo Davis in Thursday's New York Times. Click through the wonderful slide show.
Good comments about the terrible prices and respect for our work.

Of course, this comes just a few days after we are dissed in the Times by a comment about the struggling American Folk Art Museum where part of their mission is hoping "to show people that folk art 'isn’t just quilts and weathervanes.' "

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/09/arts/design/09folk.html?scp=7&sq=quilts&st=cse

water with staying power

You may recall my rant last year about our family vacation to Cape Cod. I have nothing against the cape, other than it being 1000 miles away and that the water is there only half the time, but that vacation took a lot out of me.
This year, we stayed closer to home, using a friend's house near Muskegon. Yes, just 200 miles to drive. 200 miles took us only to the first part of Ohio last year.
And, the water stuck around all day long.

he restoreth my soul

Made for friends who gave us their summer home for a week.
My mother and I worked on the binding together while sitting on the fabulous porch.
Churn Dash--finish 7 inches.
After looking at some older quilts, I used a wider sashing than I normally make. I like the strong grid.
Quilted by Suzette Fisher--I asked her to use yellow thread--I've been using yellow more and more; it looks great on many fabrics.